desautels



May 13 1924.

C. H. DESAUTELS MANIFOLD COUPLING Filed Sent. 29. 1922 INVEN OR Patented May 13,1924. i I I mama-om) courrmofi Application nled'aeptember 28, 1922. Serial Ilfo. 5913740 To all whom it may concern: H draulic ram 13 carryiii a platform 14 upon Be it known that I, CHARLES H. DESAU' Which the stack of inohii 15 rest. By raisi :I'ELS, a citizen of the United States of Amerthe rain the stack of molds may be i ica, residing at Springfield, in the county of; a inst the cover 16 of the heater, w ch is 6 Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have he d in place by be rotated so thatlugs invented certain new and useful Improve- 17 thereon will lie un er lugs 18 on the top ments in a Manifold Coupling of which the member 11. A spac rin 50 havi a mg era ly located fiie following is a specification, slot 51- at one side is pref My invention relates to manifold coutween the top mold and the cover to aflol'd plings adapted for use particularly in heatalpaca for certain piping tobedeseribed. By II are in which cord tires are vulcanized. In t 'is means the individual molds, which are ,onemethod of vulcanizing cord tires they shown as of the usual type split circum are enclosed in molds, a stack of which is ferentiallyinto halves, are eld closed. In assembled in'a heater, and held to ether by side the'tire 19 in each mold is an annular forces the expansible bag 20 which, when fluid pressure 9 stack against the cover of the heater. To is introduced into it, will force the tire outexpand the tires outwardly into the molds wardly' against the mold; Pressure is supthey are connected to a souroe'of hydraulic lied to the bags by so-called pigtails or or pneumatic pressure. As a stack may conexible tubes 21, extending between the stem tain in the neighborhood of twenty molds, of the bag and sections 22 of a vertical pre:- 7'. the pipe by which this pressure. is supplied sure manifold. Each pifitail may have a to the tires-ls very longand is conveniently bend .23 in itso that it wi be more flexible. made sectional. The speed with which a The lower section 22 conveniently rests on heater can be loaded and unloaded is of a base 24 on the platformlt, and the top is 25 great im ortance in actual operation, and connected by a pipe 2 5 (conveniently bent l.

the rapi ity with which the-sections of the into a spira for flexibility), through which pressure supplying pipe can be assembled air or water under-pressure maybeadmitted. andtaken apart is a large factor in deter- Pipe 25 passes through slot 51 in ring 50 and ining this speed. It is the object ofmy inthrough the heater wall, and 15 preferably- 0 vention to improve upon existing devices made so arable byaunion 52 permitt' the II. from standpoints of speed of assembly and 1pc to e removed from the msidelb ithe disassembly, reliabiht ease in operation, ieate-i; during stacking or unstacking of the protection oflvulnera le parts against inmolds v i u and in various other particulars which As indicated Hl'FIg. 2, and as a preferred 86 W11 appear from the following description construction, each section of the vertical 0th and claims. manifold has two pigtails connected to it, The invention will now be described withthese pigtails being permanently located on referenceto the accompanying drawings, in the manifold section and being connected which'- the air bags by wing-nuts 26. Each section Fig. 1 is a vertical section of a vulcanizing (except those .at the top and bottom) car-- '6 heater, showing a stack of molds in position ries at its lower end the piece of a coufor vulcanizing, the heater being shown as fpling adapted to connect it to the next lower broken away to save space; section, and at its top the bottom piece of a A Fig. 2isadetail', partly in median section, similar coupling adapted to connect it to at one section of the pressure manifold t e next higher sect on. The top Tpiee f m shownas attached to fragments of adjacent each coupling oornprises a nip le 2 hav ng manifolds; t at its bottoman int ral nut I, 8 whereby it Fig. 3 is a section on-line 3-3 of Fig. 2; may be attached. to t e ipe section 22, and and g I l at its top a seat 29 pro erably of spherical Fi 4 is a'section on lined-4 of Fi 2. or conical form. 'l he up or rtion of the MI Re i eri-ing to Fig. 1, 10 re resents the ell nipple 27 is threaded, an as eeve 30 is adof a heater of any usual or esired construc- 'ustably screwed thereon. Surround ng tion, and havin top and bottom members th nipple 27 and sleeve 30 is a protecting I 11 and 12 to w ich the shellis attaehed. cylinder 31, having holes therein register-in Through the bottom member 12 passes a hywith threaded holes in th sleeve into whi'c ll.

two adjacent pipe sections.

set screws 32 fit. The cylinder is preferably internally shouldered to inter-fit with a shoulder 330a the sleeve, so that the parts will normally fall in their proper positions, and strain on thesetscrew wi 1 be relieved, and is preferably high enough to guard seat 29 from injury when the coupling is being operated or the parts are being separately handled. The inner ends of the set screws fit between lugs 34 on the nipple 27, whereby the nipple and the sleeve will be held in proper adjusted position. Preferabl the cylinder 31 has one or more small ho cs 35 at about the level of shoulder 33 so that any condensed water (the coupling when in use being normally surrounded with an atmoshere of steam) will drain oil. The cyliner also serves to protect against injury the threads to be described on the outer surface of sleeve 30.

Threaded to the bottom of each pipe section 22, and forming the top part of each coupling, is a thimble 36 having a spherical or conicalseat 37 at its bottom adaptedto inter-fit with the seat 29, and when pressed together by the mechanism to be described to form asteam tight passage 53 between the Thimble 36 has a shoulder 38 adapted to supporta clamping member comprising handles 39 and a de cnding sleeve-like portion 40 adapted to t between the sleeve 30 and the protecting cylinder 31, as shown in Fig. 2. To retain this member in position the thimblc is provided with an annular groove into which a spring ring 41 is adapted to fit. When the ring is sprung into position the clamping member is secured in place on the thimble, although free to rotate about it. i

The outside of sleeve 30 is provided with interrupted screw threads meshing with similar interrupted screw threads 12 on the portion 40; so as to form a coupling of the leech-block type by which, on rotation of the handles 39, the thimble will be drawn tightly against the seat 29, and at by which two adjacent pipe sections can e separated by giving only a quarter-turn to the handle. The threads are prefcrably constructed so that the threads on diametrically opposite sides are in similar longitudinal positions instead of being spaced axially from each other by half the pitch of the screw as in the usual screw thread. This is desirable for the following reasons. As shown in Fig. 3, the threads are formed substantially in two opposed quadrants. It is possible to assemble the sleeve 40 with sleeve 30 in either of two positions, 180 apart from each other. Now if the threads were of the usual type one of these positions would bring seat 37 at a different spacing from seat 29 than the other, a condition which would prevent a tight joint being made in one or the other position. By the construction described ill in diiiicuity is avoided, and the parts can be assembled in eitlier position with identical results.

The operation of the device is as follows. Assuming the heater to be empty, two molds are placed on the platform 14 with the air bag valve stems in substantial vertical align ment, the lowest section 22 put in place, and the pigtails 21 joined to the valve stems of their respective air bags by tightening the wingmuts 26. Two more molds are then placed on top of the pile, and another pipe section placed upon the one previously in place. the sleeve portion 40 on the new section being dropped into the space between sleeve 30 and protecting cylinder 31, with thr threads on one member in the interrupted spaces in the other. 'With sleeve 30 properly adjusted on nipple 27 the threads will be in a condition to mesh when the seats 29 and 37 come together. Preferably, however. the handle 39'is not rotated to tighten the coupling until the win -nuts 26 holding the pigtails to the air ags are lightened, as the latter operation may require some rotation of the upper pipe sec- 2 ion to bring the pi tails into proper registrations with the valve stems. It will be seen from Fig. 9 that until the handle 39 is rotated to actually clamp the two parts of the coupling together, the upper pipe section can be rotated with respect to the lower section, by reason of the type of connection between thimble 36 and the part 39-40. When the pigtails have been set in their proper positions, however, a slight turn of the handle will clamp them and the pipe section. firmly in place, and will seal the joint between thimhle 36 and nipple 27.

The addition of further sections is carried on in the same manner and finally pipe 25 is attached to the uppermost section. Removal of the molds is accomplished by a reversal of the actions described.

Having thus described my invention I claim:

I. A coupling adapted for use in a cord tirc vulcanizer which comprises a coupling member having a bearing seat, interrupted threads secured to said member, a protecting cylinder surroundng the threads and affording an annular space around the threads for the introduction of a clamping member, a second coupling member adapted to seat against the first clamping member and form therewith a fluid t ght passage, a clamping member secured to the second named coupling member but free to rotate thereon, unless clamped, said clamping mr-mbcr being provided on its inner surface with interrupted screw threads adapted to mesh with the threads on the coupling member, said threads being similar in the spaces between interruptions whereby the f w mcml'icr will operate equally in any position of assembly. and a. handle atto seat against the first clam ing n' ember tached to the clamping member. for rotating and form therewith a fluid t1 ht passage,

it. and a clamping member secure to the sec- 2. A coupling adapted for use in a cord nd named coupling member but free to ro- 35 6 tire vulcanizer which comprises a coupling tate thereon, unless clamped, said' clamping member havin a bearing seat, interrupted member being provided on its inner surface threads secured to said member, a protetw -with interrupted screw threads adapted to in cylinder surrounding the threads and mesh with the threads on the coupling mema ording an annular space around, the her. 1 threads for the introduction of a clampin 4. A coupling adapted for use in a cord member, a second coupling member adapte tire vulcamzer which comprises a couplin to seat against the first clamping member member having a bearing seat, interrup and form therewith a fluid tight passage, screw threads secured to each member a and a clamping member secured to th sec: protecting cylinder surrounding the coupling 9 0nd named coupling member but free in IQ; member and the screw threads and afi'ordi tate thereon, unless clamped, said clumping an annular space around the screw threads,

member being provided on its inner surface a second couplin member adapted to seat with interrupted screw threads adapted to against the first c amping member and form mesh with the threads on the coupling memtherewith Qfiuid tight passa e, and a clam ber, said interrupted threads being similar ing member surrounding an protecting t e in all segments whereby the clamping memsecond named coupling member, said clampber will operate equally in any position of ing member being fixed to such couplin assembly. member but free to rotate thereon, an

3. A coupling adapted for use in a cord adapted to fit into the annularspace within tire vulcanizer which comprises a coupling the protecting cylinder, and mterru ted member having a bearing seat, interrupted screw threads on the inner peri hery o the threads secured to said member, a protectclamping member adaptedto side past the ing c linder surrounding the threads and interrupted threads associated with the first afi'or ing an annular space around the named coupling member and to engage threads for the introduction of a clampin therewith upon rotation.

member, a. second coupling member adapted CHARLES H. DESAUTELS. 

